After the collation of the governorship election results across 23 local government areas of Imo State, the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Emeka Ihedioha, is in a comfortable lead.

Mr Ihedioha, a former deputy speaker of the House of Representatives, already polled a total of 212,283 while his closest rival and candidate of the Action Alliance (AA), Uche Nwosu, has a total of 133,302 votes.

The PDP has won in eight local government areas while AA has won in 10. The All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) has won in three local government areas while the All Progressives Congress (APC) has won in two.

The candidate of APGA, Ifeanyi Ararume, is currently ranking third on the table while the candidate of the APC, Hope Uzodinma, is the fourth.

There are 27 local government areas in Imo State. The remaining four local governments include Ihiette Uboma, Ngor Okpala, Ahiasu Mbaise and Idiato South LGA, which is the incumbent governor’s local government.

It was at the point of collating the results from Idiato local government area that the PDP agent, Uche Onyeagocha, tore the result, leading to the abrupt suspension of the collation.

PREMIUM TIMES reported that both Mr Onyeagocha and associates of Governor Rochas Okorocha, who had represented two other parties at the collation centre – Steve Asenobi and Paschal Onwukaike – were promptly arrested and whisked away by the security agents.

Normalcy has since returned to the collation centre but the supporters of both the PDP and the AA have surrounded the INEC office chanting war songs.